agency to play down the risk of sending kids back into classrooms? major developments in the breonna taylor case. the grand jury tapes will be released, and the kent attorney general adms e jurors were never even asked to consider homicide charges against the officers involved in taylor's death. ballot mix-up: nearly 100,000 new york voters received ballots with the wrong names on them. this northern california inferno claimed one acre every five seconds. now, new evacuation orders for more than 10,000 people. n.f.l. outbreak: after week three of the season, two teams are sidelined. and class is in session with this 91-year-old professor embracing virtual learning. >> this is the "cbs evening news" with norah o'donnell, reporting from the nation's

capital. >> o'donnell: good evening. and thank you for joining us. we are going to begin with tonight's first presidential debate in what could now be the defining moment in a campaign that seems to have already had more than a few of them. more than 100 million americans are expected to watch president trump and former vice president joe biden square off, the first face-to-face meeting between the two men in four years. and after months of lobbing long-distance attacks, aides for both candidates say tonight the gloves and the masks will be off, in what both sides expect could be a deeply personal and contentious match-up. joe biden is playing office sharing his 2019 tax returns with reporters, after the president is dogged with new revelations over how little income tax he has paid in two decades. both men arrive amid the backdrop of a global pandemic which has cost more than 205,000 americans their lives, hammered the u.s. economy, and upended daily routines, like going to work and school.

there's a lot of new reporting to get to ahead of this pivotal debate, and our team of correspondents is standing by to cover it all. cbs' ed o'keefe is going to lead off our coverage tonight from inside the debate hall. good evening, ed. >> reporter: good evening, norah. said, just hours before the debate, joe biden did something the president has so far refused to do-- he released his income taxes for 2019, signaling recent reports of the president's financial history are a key part of his plan of attack. on stage tonight, joe biden's aides say he'll draw a sharp contrast. his 2019 tax returns show he paid more than $299,000 in taxes on close to $1 million in income, compared to the $750 the president paid in his first year in office, according to a "the new york times" investigation. he paid no income tax in 10 of the previous 15 years as he reported bigger losses than profits. >> he has spent his entire life trying to find ways to get out of meeting the obligation that every other working person in this country meets.

>> reporter: the former vice president is also expected to focus on how the president has managed the pandemic, which has killed more than 200,000, and has literally changed tonight's debate. there are extra security and medical safety precautions in place. the governor activated 300 national guard troops in case of protests. >> normally, we have an audience of about 900 people for these debates, and we'll have less than 100 in there today. >> reporter: inside the haul, social distancing is being enforced, temperatures are being taken, and everyone has to wear a mask, except the president, biden, and the moderator. on stage, no handshake or elbow bumps expected, and there will be no opening or closing statements. what is expected is a contentious exchange. >> i'm prepared to go out and make my case as to why i think he's failed. >> biden's a weak guy, i think. we have a debate coming up. it'll be interesting. >> reporter: mr. trump isn't expected to hold back, either, signaling in recent days he wants to talk about work done by hunter biden when his father was

vice president, and he might call out biden's mental fitness. campaign spokesman tim murtaugh insists the president is prepared. >> the president is going to be just fine. he's ready to go. and as i said, he's been preparing for this for the last four years. >> o'donnell: ed o'keefe joins us now from cleveland. and, ed, no republican has won the white house without the state of ohio. what's the state of the race there? >> reporter: that's a good point, norah, and cbs considers ohio a battleground state. sensing a possible chance of retaking the state, biden is stickin around to do a whistlestop train tour in parts of the state tomorrow. and remember, tonight, the former vice president has a bit of an advantage. he debated 24 opponents 11 times over the last 15 months. the president hasn't been on a stage like this since 2016. norah. >> o'donnell: ed o'keefe, thank you. president trump is the first incumbent in 28 years to enter the first debate trailing in national polls, and tonight, the president's personal finances, including how he

struggled with business losses until a lucrative new opportunity emerged from reality tv. here's cbs' ben tracy. >> reporter: with his staff cheering him on as he left for cleveland, president trump avoided reporters' questions about his finances. >> mr. president, who do you owe money to? >> reporter: he won't be able to avoid those questions tonight. his own aides say they expect he'll be hit immediately on revelations he avoided paying taxes for years, along with allegations his reputation as a savvy businessman was a facade. according to tax documents obtained by "the new york times," in 2002, the president lost more than $350 million. in 2003, it was nearly $90 million. but then a life line arrived. >> you're fired. >> reporter: according to "the times" mr. trump made $197 million from his hit tv show "the apprentice" and leveraging his celebrity to earn another $230 million in deals and endorsements. >> you'll absolutely love trump

steaks. >> reporter: he became a profitable pitch man, paid half a million dollars to promote double-stuff oreo's, $15 million for serta mattresses and another half million to hawk domino pizza. >> still got it, donald. still got it. >> reporter: according to "the times" report, mr. trump made more money promoting his business skills than running his businesses. many of those are reportedly bleeding money, and the president is now hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. democrats say it's a national security concern. >> tell us, who do you owe the money to? and do you owe debt to any foreign nation? >> reporter: another issue the president will face tonight is coronavirus. and cbs news has learned that white house officials, including dr. deborah birx, pressured the c.d.c. to minimize the risk of coronavirus to children to get schools to reopen more quickly. now, a former c.d.c. official tells us the white house was slicing and dicing the data to fit its narrative. norah. >> o'donnell: ben tracy, thank you. joining me now is "60 minutes"

correspondent and cbs news senior political analyst john dickerson. okay, john, this is going to be a debate like we've never seen before. what do you think people should watch for? >> well, it's the first face-off for these two and the most unpredictable candidate is the one behind in the polls, president trump. campaigns can be frivolous, and what they should look for is that this is a serious event. the most serious in a campaign which matches up with a serious job. presidents can send people to war. they can change their lives. so what viewers can look for tonight is not just answers to specific questions, but for what's behind them, the temperament, values, poise. those are important in the job, too. >> o'donnell: you're talking about three-quarters of voters say, "we're going to watch," but can any voters' minds be changed? >> a lot of those who are watching will have already made up their minds, but the candidates can appeal to other kind of voters. i mean, they're appealing to their base voters because they want them to get energized. nothing more energizing than seeing your person swinging in the ring. they want to get them energized to get their friends to go out and vote. and there's another important constituency: social media. social media will be determining and defining this debate from

the first answer and many days afterwards. and as serious as it is, it might not elevate the most serious answers on social media. >> o'donnell: what are you looking for from the candidates? >> for president trump, in 2016, he was blunt. topics, trade being the biggest. i expect him to be blunt and focused again tonight. joe biden has to inhabit this return to normalcy he's been talking about, which means slaloming around the president's theatrics. he has to explain why his programs will affect people's lives. and if he talks about virtue, he has to say what that means to people and not just talk in abstractions. >> o'donnell: john dickerson, thank you. and join john, gayle king, and me tonight for cbs news coverage of the presidential debate. it begins at 9:00 eastern time, 6:00 in the west. president trump's nominee for the supreme court amy coney barrett went to capitol hill hill today escorted by vice president mike pence. barrett met with top senate republicans, including majority leader mitch mcconnell, who would not answer the question of whether barrett should recuseupe supremcour

republicans hope to have her confirmed before election day. some students in the nation's largest school district, new york city, returned to class today. but could an alarming spike in new cases mean schools will have to close again? here's cbs' nikki battiste. >> reporter: five-year-old thiago left his home this morning for the most-anticipated day since march-- his first day back in the classroom, one of nearly half a million students returning to new york city schools this week. >> he's so excited! >> reporter: but it happened the same day as this alarming announcement: new york citi' coronavirus cases rose to a daily positivity rate of just above 3%, the highest since june. >> you don't enforce the mask ordnance, you will have a higher infection rate. >> reporter: and new york's mayor warned new yorkers starting today, if they didn't wear masks in public, they would face a fine, all this as a new study shows a dramatic rise in the rate of children infected by covid-19, who made up just over

2% of all cases in april to more than 10% today. are you alarmed by your study's findings? >> i'm always alarmed to see children getting a disease at higher rates. >> reporter: dr. sarah goza, president of the a.a.p., says she supports in-person learning where communities have a low number of coronavirus cases. >> children learn more at school than just reading, writing and arithmetic. they get social skills. we know we are harming our children by not getting our community spread down so that it is safe to go back to those in- person schools. >> reporter: new york city has twice delayed the start of school. many teachers have protested. >> remote until it's safe! >> reporter: and some principals, like moses ojeda, say while they want schools to reopen, they're worried and anxious. do you think that you have enough teachers and staff? >> i'm currently short 14 teachers to reopen on thursday. >> reporter: wow. >> god forbid a teacher now has to take a medical accommodation, and then i'm shorthanded and will have to scramble to try to find someone. >> reporter: mayor bill de blasio says if the average one-

week positivity rate rises above 3% here in new york city, he will automatically shut down schools. the city's department of education says if one school has two covid-19 cases in different settings, that school will be closed until the source is identified. norah. >> o'donnell: nikki battiste, thank you. also in new york city tonight, a major voting mix-up just weeks before the election. the city's board of election says nearly 100,000 people in brooklyn received absentee ballot return envelopes with the wrong names and addresses. well, the board blames a contractor hired to print and mail the ballots. new ones are being sent out with a notice advising of the error. well, tonight, we're following several stunning new developments in the breonna taylor shooting. the grand jury proceedings will be made public tomorrow. that's after one of the jurors went to court accusing the attorney general of misrepresenting their deliberations. no charges were filed against officers for the death of taylor. cbs' adriana diaz report tonight from louisville. >> reporter: as louisville

anticipates tomorrow's release of the secret grand jury recordings, tonight, kentucky attorney general daniel cameron admitted that no charges were recommended for breonna taylor's death. >> ultimately, our judgment is that the charge that we could prove at trial beyond a reasonable doubt was for wanton endangerment against mr. hankinson. >> all along, we asked, was there any evidence even presented on breonna taylor's behalf? >> reporter: ben crump represents taylor's family. >> we at least want to know that eople as victims, notder the law for black people as victims, not only when black people are accused of crimes. we continue to ask for full transparency. >> reporter: and so is a grand juror, who filed a motion asking to speak publicly, accusing attorney general cameron of using the grand jurors as a shield to deflect accountability and responsibility. kevin glogower represents the anonymous juror.

>> my client's concern is making sure there is appropriate information for the public as a whole to see what's going on. >> reporter: tonight, louisville's incoming interim police chief, yvette gentry, the first female to hold the post, says her first order of business is removing the plywood from police headquarters. many in this community say they've lost confidence in their police officers. how do you rebuild that confidence? >> you know, i think it starts with me, leading by example, and being a woman of my word and accessible to people. the door that you're feeling like you have to kick down is open. >> reporter: in that local news interview, cameron called the grand jury an independent body and said they could have considered charges against the other officers, if they'd wanted to. the grand jury recordings will be turned over to the court by noon tomorrow. he publicear how they'll be released to the public. norah. >> o'donnell: adriana diaz, thank you. california's wildfire season keeps getting worse. three more people have died.

that's 29 since last month. the collective burn area is nearly the size of three million footballld time-lapseeo shows powerful updrafts north of san francisco, where tens of thousands of people have been evacuated. here's cbs' jonathan vigliotti. >> reporter: the latest wildfires ravaging northern california are now also taking lives. three people were killed in the zog fire, which has charred nearly 63 square miles in rural shasta county. in napa and sonoma counties, the glass fire rages on. 42,000 acres and counting, forcing nearly 82,000 people to evacuate, including the entire towns of calistoga and angwyn. >> we left with nothing. literally, with nothing. >> reporter: at one point, the fire was burning an acre every five seconds, destroying decades-old wineries and torching homes one by one. you're looking at yet another than 0 structures haveo up in

been destroyed as this fire continues to make its way down the mountainside. and here's what's left of that house. most of it was saved. shortly after our report fire crews arrived, thanks to the help of a neighbor. >> i panicked, and i just started yelling, "help." i have never seen anything like it. >> reporter: and this is what firefighters are up against. the wind has calmed down, but this wildlife has created a weather system of its own, and tonight, it is exploding out of control. norah. >> o'donnell: jonathan vigliotti, thank you. there is still much more news ahead on tonight's "cbs evening news." one of the country's biggest entertainment companies lays off tens of thousands of workers. why they say the pandemic is to blame. and the n.f.l. has its first covid outbreak. the two teams sidelined, and what does it mean for the rest of the season?

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>> o'donnell: some crushing job news tonight that's being blamed on the pandemic. disney says it is laying off 28,000 workers nationwide at its theme parks, stores, and cruises. crewses. two-third are part-time employees. the company says there's too much uncertainty about when business will rebound to keep a full staff. tonight, the n.f.l. is reporting its first covid-19 outbreak. at least eight players and staff from the tennessee titans have tested positive. the team has suspended in-person activities, as did the minnesota vikings, who played tennessee on sunday. it is not clear if either team will play this coming weekend. and coming up next, the classics professor embarks on an odyssey at 91 ars young, he's maedl tea. the americans who drive our trucks and ambulances,

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soul of his students. >> our city reeks with the smoke of burning incense. >> reporter: teaching the classics at the university of st. thomas in houston, and he wasn't about to let coronavirus get in the way. >> they couldn't run me off, so i just stayed around. once upon a time... >> reporter: but that's meant embracing technology and a whole new way of teaching at the age of 91. are your students helping you? >> oh, yes. definitely. yes. especially if something technical is wrong. "well, professor krohn why don't you try doing it this way." >> reporter: he often teaches five days a week and often often relies on his theater background to engage his students. his dedication wasn't lost on his former students, who took to social media after his virtual teaching went viral. one former student writing, "he left a lasting impression on our lives." i'm curious, how old do you feel? >> well, like jack benny-- how old am i? i'm 39.

( laughter ) >> reporter: meg oliver, cbs news, montclair, new jersey. >> o'donnell: very impressive. teaching via zoom is hard for anybody. we'll be right back. his name was charles and charles met martha... isn't she pretty? yeah. isn't she pretty? hey allergy muddlers... achoo! ...do your sneezes turn heads? try zyrtec... ...it starts working hard at hour one... and works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. zyrtec muddle no more.

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is maximum strength cold and flu medicine with soothing honey-licious taste. nyquil honey. the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever best sleep with a cold medicine. >> o'donnell: and don't forget to join me, gayle king, and john dickerson for cbs news live coverage of the first presidential debate. that's at 9:00 eastern, 6:00 in the west. if you can't watch us live, don't forget to set your dvr so you can watch us later. that is tonight's edition of the "cbs evening news." a reminder to stay positive and test negative. i'm norah o'donnell right here in the nation's capital. and we're going to see you later tonight for that first

this is the "cbs overnight news." >> i'm jeff pegues in washington. thanks for staying with us. there were plenty of fireworks on stage last night as president trump and former vice president joe biden squared off for the first of three presidential debates. the question is, how will it affect the race? a recent pollou only 3% of ke are undecided headed into the final few weeks of the volts. both campaigns are focussing on

a few key battle ground states and especially the suburban women living in those states. pennsylvania tops the list. a new washington post poll found that president trump is stralg by nine points. 54% to 45. anthony mason met up with six women from the philadelphia suburbs for a socially distant conversation about the election. >> hi. my name is hannah. i'm a conservative republican and one of my main issues that i'm passionate about is the pro life movement. >> my name is ma linlda. i was a life long republican but i did not vote for trump in 2016 and i am now a democrat. >> my name is cynthia. i'm registered republican but i'm really anindependent. likel. >> hello. i'm moderate democrat and the most pressing issues for me are the economy and the divisiveness in the country. >> hi. i'm mary ellen.

i was a long-term democrat committee person. i voted for trump in 2016 and i plan on voting for trump again. >> my name is debbie. i'm a democrat. i was disillusioned with politics but it's better since biden chose harris for his running made. >> what was the most important thing that contributed to your decision debbie? >> i think bide seven more sensitive to people's needs and to the middle class. i think trump is very about himself. >> my community is 100% democrat controlled and i feel like i've been dealing with just lip service people an not action, and i've -- that's why i've changed, you know, my viewpoint. trump seems like the type of person who has let's just do it. >> we're all affected by the economy. we'd like to get a candidate for president that would be able to reign in the